A Talk by Elizabeth Yale, Adjunct Assistant Professer, Center for the Book

Gender, Memory, and Authority in the Early Modern Medical Print Marketplace

In seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Britain, medical practitioners, whether physicians, midwifes, apothecaries, or self-trained purveyors of astrological, chemical, and herbal remedies, built their careers out of a diverse range of activities. They treated patients, made and sold medicines, wrote and published books, built collections of books and curiosities, and engaged in related scientific activities, such as natural history, chymistry, and experimental philosophy. This talk will examine how and why medical practitioners engaged with print publication. Considering, in particular, cases of posthumous publication, Dr. Yale asks: how did medical practitioners establish (or attempt to establish) authority and authorship in the medical print marketplace?